If you are reading this article, I presume that you have been through the painful moment when you realize that you have to complete a project by tomorrow and you just don’t feel like it. For some of us the project is a website. For others it might be an application. And the most dreaded part of any such project is the implementation of design.

Many a times I have found myself frustrated on a simple layout just thinking what went wrong and why doesn’t the layout look like I want it to. There are some times that I realize that a layout just cannot be accomplished in the time I allotted to it and I then have to take a complete U turn ultimately leading to a template.

Templates are a great way to get started on any project. For website designs, there are scaffolding tools like yeoman that give you a basic setup of the website you want to create so you can focus on the more important stuff like getting the layout correct. Once you have your basic requirements in line you can then use a template for which you can either use a content management system (such as WordPress or joomla) or maybe extract a template from a website that provides open source templates.

Its not that I steal the ideas from others and steal their code. I rather gain inspiration from the stuff they have already created and open sourced. It allows me to make micro changes to the website that I am creating so that the website is customized to the content it has to showcase.

The art of template choosing is in itself a very rare skill and is difficult to acquire. The template should not only encompass the content the website has to represent but also display it in such a way that gives the viewer the exact thing the website is meant to represent. For example, a website showcasing a product has to be formal and must stick to darkened colors so that the viewer gets to know that the manufacturer is actually serious about it. On the other hand a portfolio of a designer or an invitation to a meet should have bright colors and use some tricks to engage the user into actually reading into the content and spend more time to view the website.

Once the design is ready and the content is added the final step remains which is to add details about how to reach the developer or the owner of the website. The final touches may also include fine tuning the website according to the suggestions from peers or the project owner.

Some other topics that I have left untouched are vulcanization and lazy loading of images which help enhance the website experience. These techniques are used once the website is complete and ready to be uploaded to the web. The art of website design is a vast field with new technologies like polymer and Javascript libraries like React JS sprouting up every day. In today’s world knowing how HTML5 and CSS3 works is just not enough.

TL;DR

the most dreaded part of any such project is the implementation of design.

 

Templates are a great way to get started on any project.

 

make micro changes to the website that I am creating so that the website is customized to the content it has to showcase.

 

The art of website design is a vast field

 

In today’s world knowing how HTML5 and CSS3 works is just not enough.